Monday, June 8, 2015

More Info, Goodies From Eric Thomas!

Eric Lensing, a.k.a. "Eric Thomas" and I have been e-mailing back & forth- what a thrill to meet another one of The Greats! Eric, however, is very humble, in that he was enamored with working with whom he considered The Greats at KAAY and other stations... here is more of his story, edited for content, along with some goodies he sent our way:

"As for Joe James, I didn’t work with him. I just sat in with him several times and then when KAAY had their summer softball team, my neighborhood guys played the Mighty 1090 – and Joe was a big promoter for their team. He was so smooth – I don’t think he was at KAAY long. He did afternoon drive."

And when I mentioned "Steve Scott" (Steve Morris) and our Amateur radio hobbies:"And on top of all that you were able to reach Steve Scott who lives just on the other side of the your county. How cool is that? Of all the friends I met at various stations I never spent time with one that was a ham operator. Otherwise, I might have gotten into it back then. You have a great passion for it, and after all, that’s what keeps us young at heart! Passion. You mentioned how you were hooked on radio as a kid – so was I. I never called the out of state stations like you did, but I spent hours and hours listening to John Landecker on WLS in Chicago, The Roadrunner on WOAI in San Antonio, and The Mean 15 – WLAC in Nashville. And, of course, I did call in requests to Steve Scott at KAAY. Those were my stations."

"I didn’t want to expose the actual names of those that helped me on the way, but I did see where Bob Nelson wrote on your site and mentioned some real names - so I guess it’s ok to say the Bob Majers I mentioned was in fact Bob Nelson. And the Dave Freeman was actually Boyce Barger. Great guys."

"I also saw you were asking for help from anyone who worked with or knew the whereabouts of a few jocks. One was Dr. Grady Brock. I worked with him at KKYK and he was a true pro. He had worked in Chicago with Larry LuJack and I asked about him from time to time. He did tell me Larry LuJack liked to walk around with his cans around his neck with the plug stuck inside one of his back pockets. I started doing it from that moment on. Dr. Brock was very intense when working and would not let anyone in the control room, and I admired that. If only I could have that much swag- haha! Another great guy I worked with was David B. Treadway. What an original! The man was hilarious on and off the air. He worked with Dr. Brock so he may have some information."David B. Treadway is definitely one of a kind! he is still working on KQUS, "US 97" in Hot Springs, AR, with the beautiful and talented Vicki Parker!"I’ve attached a few memos from KAAY PD Steve Kelly. He was a man in control. The memo about the hotline just made me laugh and brought back a good memory. I had just starting working at KAAY and one beautiful summer Sunday afternoon I was on the air and the hotline lit up. Really surprised me. I grabbed the phone and a voice said, who is this? I gave my name. Then a pause. What song are you playing? I told him. Another pause. Who is singing this song? Gave him the info. Then he asked if it was a new song. I said no. I was playing Pleasant Valley Sunday by The Monkees and our then GM Phil Zeni was outside in his yard cooking out and was listening to the station. And he actually lived in a neighborhood in Little Rock called Pleasant Valley. I don’t know who was more freaked out – him listening to the words of the song or me having the hotline go off. Good times."